


petals and feathers

by eyydude



Series: bns campaign shorts [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Hanahaki Disease, M/M, Modern Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:41:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28417026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eyydude/pseuds/eyydude
Summary: Wanning is a person that prefers the safety of routine and fears the dangers of taking risks.He'd rather keep his suffering quiet since there is nothing he can do to cure it on his own.It's a terrible sensation of being eaten from the inside by his own fears and the disease that makes him cough up flower petals until his throat is sore and his eyes are red.
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Series: bns campaign shorts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2081262
Kudos: 3





	petals and feathers

**Author's Note:**

> so u might notice a pattern but ya this is yet another short based on a dnd campaign that I play with my friends

The worst coughing fit happens right when Wanning prepares to go tuck Suki and Ryu in for the night.

He barely has enough time to run down the hall and hide in the bathroom when it hits him, that terrible sensation, the horrid itch in the back of his throat and the pain in his lungs that makes him gag on air. It’s been this way for the last few weeks, his days are peppered with fits of coughing and handfuls of black petals that vaguely remind him of feathers.

It’s inconvenient, to say the least, the way it destroys his carefully planned routine, interrupts the time he puts aside to spend with his children.

There’s a hopelessness that comes with it and it’s a feeling that Wanning hasn’t felt in many years. Of course, life has its ways to get in his way and make sure the person with as many degrees in medicine as children is the one that has to handle a disease he cannot cure.

Perfect.

Minutes pass where he’s just coughing out petals while his throat feels like it’s being scrapped with a fork. His vision is blurry with tears and he’s not even sure if it’s just because of the vomiting. This has been one of the most frustrating experiences of his life and there’s nothing he can do except prepare for what’s to come.

He needs to talk to his brother, as busy and as disgusted with children as Shen Jiu is, Wanning still knows that he can count on him to care for Ryu and Suki. Someone has to take care of them when this is over.

There’s not much time left.

He’s not even sure when this all started, the lines are too blurred, it all happened so...unexpectedly. 

No one expects to find a bruised and battered man passed out next to some trashcans while they walk back from work, not even Wanning who would like to consider himself ready for emergencies.

Of course, he simply made sure the man wasn’t dying or getting an infection from the trash he was laying in and then he got a taxi to get home. Rima might be a dear friend and almost like a daughter to him, but she still asks for incredibly high amounts of money to babysit Ryu and Suki.

After the strange event he doesn’t expect to encounter the man again, but fate has a strange way of doing things and it seems to love messing with Wanning. They meet again a few weeks later, this time the man is conscious, although just barely as he gets dragged in by a woman dressed like one of those “goth” people Luo Binghe likes to spend his time with.

Turns out his name is Lusung and not even a broken nose and a mouthful of blood will make him stop talking.

Their meetings continue much the same way and while a part of Wanning is worried about Lusung’s self-preservation instincts, the other feels a small flutter in his stomach each time he shows up again.

It’s like clockwork, secure and repetitive, easy and comfortable.

They banter and snip at each other, their connection is built on bloody knuckles, bandages and clever comments.

It’s a strangely pleasant routine that evolves ever so slowly until there’s this strange nameless thing between them. An unspoken bond that just exists and they do not touch it. Wanning is still too frightened to even consider whatever their strange relationship is. He hasn’t spoken properly to Mo Ran in months, there’s a clear avoidance happening on both parts and Wanning doesn’t wish to live through that again.

So he continues his life.

Until one day when he’s waiting impatiently for Rima to arrive so he can run off to work. She’s been late before, nothing unusual, but he’s in a hurry and even though he knows his sons can take care of themselves he’s still too worried to leave them alone. 

A knock at the door is what starts a series of events that turn Wanning’s life upside down.

He opens the door expecting to see Rima, but instead, he finds a fully conscious and unharmed Lusung standing in front of the door. The moment they see each other their eyes widen.

Turns out the sibling Rima kept complaining about was Lusung.

Small, strange world.

After the revelation, things begin to change even more. Lusung starts to come around once in a while for a brief visit, he teases Ryu and dodges most of the pillows Suki throws at him and it terrifies Wanning to no end. 

It terrifies him because it feels right.

The coughing starts soon after.

He looks everywhere for a way to fix it, for a cure or anything to keep it at bay. 

There’s nothing left to do, but wait and that is exactly what he’s doing. He sits on the floor of his bathroom, face red and eyes swollen while looking at the toilet filled with black petals…

Petunias or Black Cats, that’s their name. Curiosity pushed Wanning to look up the meaning and name of these things that plague his life now. 

It’s so late...he needs to put himself back together and go check on his boys.

They need a parent not a mess of a person like he is right now.

A knock on the door makes him flinch and he gets up from the floor, he thinks about ignoring it, but he’s sure whoever it is bothering them at this hour will leave the second Wanning opens the door looking like a ghost from one of those horror movies the children like.

He opens the door only to be greeted by Lusung holding two small bouquets of flowers. One is made out of these  small and fringed creamy-white flowers that Wanning doesn’t believe he’s seen before and the other is…

Black petunias.

“Annoying, right?”

“Huh?” He blinks.

“Ryu sent me a picture of these, a bitch to cough up, I bet.” Lusung grins and waves the bouquet of petunias around.

“Ryu?” Wanning blinks again, he feels like he’s missing something.

“Smart kid, really worried about you.”

He nods numbly, Ryu is always smart, one of the best things that ever happened to Wanning.

“These are pretty annoying too, you know?” Lusung holds up the white flowers. “ Mignonette, that’s the name. ‘Your qualities surpass your charm’ that’s the description,” he chuckles, “They mean health too so…”

There are a few beats where Wanning just stands there completely confused before slowly connecting everything that’s happening.

The puzzle pieces slowly fall into place.

They both just stand there looking at each other when Wanning suddenly realizes that even though his heart is beating way to fast for his own good.

He can breathe properly now.

  
  
  



End file.
